Dead Space 3 is an excellent game. As a game, this is one of those games that every gamer must experience. There are some things that detract from the overall experience if you’re a fan of the series, but overall, this is one hell of a game and bucket loads of fun if you have a fast net connection.
The Story
Dead Space 3’s storyline picks up a few years after the events of the previous game, with Isaac Clarke in denial and in hiding from the fanatical Unitologists and their murderous henchmen. The world seems to be crumbling around him and the entire planet succumbing to the power of the Unitologists. It is up to you, as Isaac Clarke and a handful of survivors, to bring back the world from the brink of extinction. Plans of galactic domination, absurd love triangles and the resurrection of a long-forgotten alien race were somehow not enough for Visceral Games (and EA) to spin a compelling story. The story is decent enough to and serves the purpose of tying up the series and does a decent job of explaining something of the markers history and is sufficient. It is nothing remarkable, and just enough to hold the game together.
 |
 |
Bells and Whistles
When it comes to graphics, Dead Space 3 just shines. The engine seems to be very well optimized and we are quite certain that people with even half-decent rigs will be able to extract quite a bit of visual goodness from this game. The audio is also absolutely superb and will do full justice to a true 5.1 system if you have one.
That said, one of the reasons why Dead Space 3 runs so well on comparatively lower-end systems is not just because of clever coding; it’s more because the environments you now fight in are exceptionally small. They feel large, you’ll see vast vistas, humungous spaceships, massive mines, but your actual battles will be fought in tiny little rooms that barely cover a fraction of the environment you just caught a glimpse of.
 |
 |
Blasting off Limbs was Never More Satisfying
Dead Space 3’s combat has also moved on from the comparatively slow and thoughtful combat of the first couple of games to proper, adrenaline fuelled, action frenzy that will keep you on your toes and just begging for more. As a veteran of the first two games, you will definitely find the rate at which you run through resources disconcertingly alarming. You will literally run through hundreds of rounds of ammo, scores of stasis packs and dozens of health packs in each level.
Sadly, with this new, faster-paced combat, the very soul of the series has been sucked out. This no longer feels like a survival-horror game and is more like Gears of War than anything else. Don’t get us wrong, this is by no means a bad thing – it just feels wrong in a Dead Space game. There will never be many enemies on-screen at once, more because the environments are so tiny than because the engine can’t handle it.
 |
 |
The weapons you’ll be provided with reflect this change. The enemies, while they still need to be dismembered, are a little easier to kill and your weapons themselves dish out quite a lot of damage at a fast rate. Precision has been sacrificed for rate-of-fire in Dead Space 3, and this was the first time in a Dead Space game that we could actually do without the trusty plasma cutter. Why would you need a plasma cutter when you can just pump half a dozen rounds from an assault rifle into an enemy’s torso and watch it burst into its component parts?
Weapons can now be crafted and modified with a far greater degree of freedom than ever before. You do need to collect resources to do this and while you can mix and match almost any combination of weapons, you’ll still need the requisite modules (such as a line launcher or pulse module) before you can build a more powerful weapon in Dead Space 3.
 |
 |
The True Horror
This however, is where the ugly system of “micro-transactions” raises its distasteful head. For a game that is trying to immerse you in its environment and story, having a direct link offering you scrap for your credit card details completely pulls you out of the experience. It’s like watching Pulp Fiction (Inglorious Basterds for you young ‘uns out there) and suddenly noticing that the camera crew is visible in the background or something. A jarring facet of the experience that very rapidly bumps you back to reality and completely ruins your experience. Single-player games, especially ones that are meant to be immersive, should not have such a mechanism. Such transactions are acceptable, to a limited extent, in a freemium game, but not in something like this.
 |
 |
The Saving Grace
Multiplayer, specifically co-op, is where Dead Space 3 truly shines. In single-player mode many of the puzzles seem more like an exercise in tedium, in co-op, it’s a race against the clock as one player tries to stave off the waves of enemies that are hoping for a bite of the other ones flesh while it solves a puzzle. Fun! The co-op dynamic is very well thought out and balanced in the game and completely changes the way you experience Dead Space 3. There are segments of the story that you will be able to unlock, extra dialogues, a redefined combat experience. This is a lot of fun and nobody who buys this game should even think of ignoring this feature. You start playing the game with your partner in mind and this affects even the weapon choices that you make. Do you go with an AOE flamethrower and shotgun combo while your partner takes a line-gun? Of course, you’ll be thinking of ways to messing with your partner as well, such as pausing halfway up a ladder when a horde of enemies is descending on him (hyuk hyuk).
 |
 |
We would still suggest that you finish Dead Space 3 in its entirety in single-player mode though. Unless you have a buddy you can rely on and who will always be online when you want to play. The NewGame mode is quite sufficient for co-op otherwise and anyway, whatever semblance of horror there is will all go down the drain in co-op.
Final Thoughts
Dead Space 3 is a fantastic game. Well-coded and well-designed, this game provides a rock-solid gaming experience that is fun and full filling at the same time. We wish it were more in-line with the earlier games and stuck to its roots more, and also that the micro-transaction system wasn’t even included, but the game is just too much fun to ignore and is a gaming experience that we whole-heartedly recommend.
 |
 |
Developer: Visceral Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: TPS; Survival-horror
Modes: Single-player; co-op
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
 |
 |